HTC One Series: 4 phones, Android 4.0, 25GB Dropbox, Beats Audio

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The rate at which new phones get released is hard to keep up with, but not as hard as the manufacturers having to come up with new names for each one. HTC is a good example, having produced phones recently carrying the names Sensation, Titan, Radar, Evo, Incredible, Desire, and Wildfire.

There’s only so many names you can come up with, so HTC has decided to take a different approach going forward. At the Mobile World Congress, which kicked off today in Barcelona, a new range of smartphones have been announced that will all carry the name HTC One.

Although phones released under the HTC One name will vary in size and spec, they will all have common features. They include Android 4.0, HTC Sense 4, and a focus on taking great pictures and hearing an “authentic sound experience.”

With that in mind, HTC is introducing ImageSense and ImageChip. Both are meant to offer up a superior camera experience by autofocusing in just 0.2 seconds and taking a picture in 0.7 seconds. Video is also possible at the same time as you capture an image, a feature HTC has called Video Pic. And continuous shooting is possible just by holding down a button.

With HD video and super fast image capture, HTC had to give you some place to store all that data. So a new deal has been struck to offer HTC One owners 25GB of free Dropbox storage for 2 years (that’s over $200 in value). With the service being fully integrated into Sense 4.

The promise of authentic sound reproduction is linked to HTC’s purchase of Beats by Dr. Dre last year. Beats Audio will be a standard feature across all HTC One handsets. Enhancements have also been made with HTC Sync Manager and Music Hub, allowing for automatic syncing with the music on your PC, and easy connection to a range of streaming services. There’s also a Car Stereo Clip accessory for simple music playback in your vehicle.

So you’ve got the latest version of Android and Sense, loads of cloud storage, super fast image and video capture, and great sound. But what about the handsets?

HTC has announced four phones carrying the HTC One name. Here’s a quick breakdown of the spec differences along with the launch videos HTC has released for each:

HTC One XL

1.5GHz quad core (Tegra 3)

4.7-inch display (1280 x 720)

1GB RAM

16GB storage

8MP camera

8.9mm thick

HTC One X

1.5GHz quad core (Tegra 3)

4.7-inch display (1280 x 720)

1GB RAM

32GB storage

8MP camera

8.9mm thick

HTC One S

1.5GHz dual core (Snapdragon S4)

4.3-inch display (540 x 960)

1GB RAM

16GB storage

8MP camera

7.8mm thick

HTC One V

1GHz single core

3.7-inch display (480 x 800)

512MB RAM

4GB storage

5MP camera

9.24mm thick

If you’re wondering what the difference is between the HTC One X and XL, the XL is effectively the same phone, but adds LTE while carrying 16GB less on-board storage than the X.

All HTC One phones will be available from April, with HTC doing a global roll out across 140 mobile operators.